The Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a report in February following an inspection of the maternity services at Northampton General Hospital. The inspection was carried out as part of the CQC’s national maternity services inspection programme.
The Trust’s maternity service was previously rated by the CQC as ‘requires improvement’ and unfortunately further inspection has found that sufficient improvement had not been made to change the rating.
Following recent focused inspections, the overall rating for the maternity service at Northampton General Hospital remains ‘requires improvement’. The service is also rated as requiring improvement in the areas of being safe and well-led.
Maternity services at Northampton General Hospital were rated as requiring improvement because:
- Infection, prevention and control were not always followed to reduce the risk of infections;
- Not all midwives and medical staff had completed level 3 safeguarding training in infection prevention and control;
- Staff did not always fully and accurately complete records in relation to antenatal appointments and birthing plans;
- Staff did not consistently complete checks of specialist equipment and there were some out-of-date and missing items on emergency trolleys;
- The service did not always have enough staff to care for women and keep them safe or to support their choices in birthing options.
In relation to whether the service was safe, the CQC found that the Trust requires improvement in this area as well.
Inspectors found that the service provided mandatory training in key skills to all staff, but not all staff were up to date with mandatory training.
Nursing and midwifery staff had not always kept up to date with their mandatory training. The CQC found overall compliance with mandatory training to be below the Trust’s target and was 79.9%.
Medical staff had also not always kept up to date with their mandatory training. Overall, compliance was 69.7% for medical staff.
The CQC’s Deputy Director of Operations in the Midlands said:
“When we inspected maternity services at Northampton General Hospital, we saw that staff were competent and treated patients with kindness, but several improvements were needed across the department.
“Staff didn’t always follow infection control measures to help prevent the spread of infection which is especially important in an environment with new-born babies.
“The service had been on a journey where it recognised action needed to be taken to address the culture within the unit. Staff said although there were more opportunities to speak up, they still felt their concerns hadn’t always been listened to or addressed.
“We will continue to monitor the trust, including through future inspections, to ensure the necessary improvements are made so women and their babies receive appropriate care.”
You can read the full CQC report here.
Comment
We are all too aware that maternity services across England are not providing the levels of care that mothers, babies and families ought to expect.
It is concerning to see yet another Trust not only failing to provide safe and adequate care but consistently failing to do so. Northampton General Hospital was previously rated as requiring improvement, and despite recommendations previously made, they still continue to fail to hit the mark.
It is now down to the Trust to take heed of the CQC findings and start to make the changes required to improve their rating.
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Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which has been ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.
If you have any questions in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, then please get in touch with Danielle or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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